Holiday Season

The holiday season is upon us and all the usual traditions are in full swing. We started off with Grandparent's Day at Abbie's school. This year, Grandma and Grandpa P. were able to be her guests.

This was a great way to kick off Abbie's week-long Thanksgiving break, which I think that we had all been looking forward to. After Grandma and Grandpa P. left, Grandma and Grandpa C. came to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. Of course, Abbie's long-awaited week off also led to some boredom which I think affected her mood, so it was definitely an "interesting" week in terms of our interactions with her. As I said to Abbie's teacher last week, Abbie seems to be "asserting her independence" more at home. According to the teacher, though, it has been business as usual at school, which is good.

With Thanksgiving out of the way, we have begun the usual Christmas activities - the tree is up and decorated, the lights are in the trees outside, and Frisbee (our Elf on the Shelf) is back for another year. On Saturday night we took the girls downtown to see the lights. This gave them both an opportunity to wear their fancy dresses. The weather was beautiful - about 70 degrees - which made it great for walking around.

Abbie also has a silver dress this year, which she will be wearing for the school's holiday performance on Thursday this week. In addition to all of the songs that the lower school kids have been working on with the music teacher, Abbie will also be doing a brief violin performance with the other kids that take lessons with her. She hasn't officially put bow to strings yet, but she will likely perform Jingle Bells with the other kids at her level. Basically this involves the teacher playing the tune on her violin and the kids waiting patiently to pluck the E-string for the "hey!" part that comes halfway through the song and then comes again at the end. It's pretty cute to watch!